Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40414454›Full record

Trial reportNeuroscience letters2025

PCC-hippocampal functional connectivity associated with stress biomarker changes after meditation training for healthy adults.

Diane Joss, Gunes Sevinc, John W Denninger, Sat Bir Singh Khalsa, Elizabeth A Hoge, Manoj Bhasin, Jeffery A Dusek, Eric Macklin, Towia A Libermann, Gregory L Fricchione and 2 more

Abstract readRandomized Controlled Trial
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Trial report in Neuroscience letters, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

12 authors.

Diane JossDepartment of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: djoss@cha.harvard.edu.
Gunes SevincDepartment of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
John W DenningerDepartment of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
Sat Bir Singh KhalsaHarvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, USA.
Elizabeth A HogeDepartment of Psychiatry, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington DC, USA.
Manoj BhasinDepartment of Biomedical Informatics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Jeffery A DusekSusan Samueli Integrative Health Institute, University of California-Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA; School of Medicine, University of California-Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA.
Eric MacklinDepartment of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Towia A LibermannHarvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology Center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA.
Gregory L FricchioneDepartment of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
Herbert Benson
Sara W LazarDepartment of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.

Funding

Supplemental: Neural and cognitive propensity for trait rumination in adolescents: a multimodal study with ecological momentary assessments and MRIR01AT011002 · NCCIH · MCLEAN HOSPITAL · PI WEBB, CHRISTIAN ANTHONY · 2021 to 2025
$3.4M
Neural mechanism of critical self-judgment as a trans-diagnostic therapeutic target: a secondary data analysis study from the RDoC perspectiveR03MH136402 · NIMH · CAMBRIDGE HEALTH ALLIANCE · PI JOSS, DIANE · 2024 to 2025
$164k
NCCIH NIH HHS R01 AT011002NIMH NIH HHS R03 MH136402
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Meditation training has been shown to improve physical and mental health and promote neural plasticity, but more research is needed on the relationships between these effects. This study analyzed the Resting State Functional Connectivity (RSFC) of posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) among 94 chronically stressed but otherwise healthy adults randomized 1:1:1 to receive eight weeks of in-person one-on-one interventions focused either on meditation (n = 32), yoga (n = 31), or stress education (n = 31). We found only in the meditation arm, there was a significant reduction of PCC RSFC with the left hippocampus (p < 0.05, FWE corrected). Post-intervention changes of PCC-hippocampal RSFC were significantly (all p ≤ 0.01) correlated with changes of perceived stress (r = 0.54), allostatic load index (r = 0.58), and NF-κB anti-inflammatory gene expression (r = -0.55), suggesting the neural effects of meditation are closely associated with biomarkers of physical wellness. No significant changes with PCC RSFC were observed within the yoga or stress education arm, suggesting this neurobiological mechanism might be unique to meditation training.

Indexed as

Gyrus CinguliHippocampusMeditationStress, PsychologicalAdultBiomarkersFemaleHumansMagnetic Resonance ImagingMaleMiddle AgedNeural PathwaysYogaYoung AdultBiomarkersBiomarkerInflammationMeditationMRIWellbeingWellnessYoga

Identifiers

PMID40414454
PMCPMC12287978

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.